FORT MITCHELL, Ky. -- There was no time for a girl caught in a powerful apartment fire Wednesday afternoon to get dressed or grab her belongings before she fled -- no time to do anything, in fact, but climb onto the third-floor windowsill in her bath towel and jump.
"For someone to jump from a height like that and be able to walk away is miraculous," neighbor Ron Daniel said. "Absolutely."
The girl, who found neighbors' clothes to wear before being transported to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, was one of several residents of Mitchel's Park Apartments left temporarily homeless by the sudden blaze.
The fire was fierce, neighbor William Duncan said. Smoke poured out the windows of the six-family building, and flames shot through the newly repaired roof.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I saw the flames coming straight out of the roof."
The building's human residents evacuated quickly, but it took the intervention of firefighters to contain the blaze and rescue animals who had been inside at the time the fire started. Owners said they were thankful to have their furry family members back in their arms; any inanimate objects destroyed in the fire could be replaced.
Fort Mitchell authorities had not disclosed the source of the fire by Wednesday night.
